When Goodbye isn't the End
by Rogue 559
Summary: Phoebe/Cole thing goin on, lots of angst etc. Hope you enjoy, please review, thanks
1. Discoveries

I do not own any of the Charmed characters etc. etc. yada yada yada. Wish I owned Cole but that's a different matter entirely. Hope you enjoy, this is my first fanfiction ever so if its rubbish feel free to not tell me, if its good then please…review. 

Have a nice day.

When Goodbye isn't the End 

'The outfit is perfect, and you know it. So get your coat and walk out that door to go on a date with the man of your dreams.'

Phoebe smiled as she twirled in front of the full length mirror. She could see that what Piper was saying was true, she did look good and hopefully Matt would think so to. 

But underneath it all she simply couldn't get Cole out of her head. He was all she thought about and she knew that going on this date with Matt was probably not going to help with that situation but she was determined to try. After all if Cole couldn't be bothered to try and get in contact with her then why should she waste her energy on him? 

'Okay, I'm finally ready and I've kept him waiting for the obligatory 10 minutes. So far a good nights work.'

'Actually its been 20 minutes and Matt's starting to look suicidally bored.'

Phoebe picked up her purse from the bed and walked out of the room. Piper followed closing the door after her. 

As Phoebe reached the bottom step he saw her. She was definitely worth the wait. 

                                                                * * *

'Hey Prue, you just missed Matt,' said Piper as Prue walked in through the front door. 

'Oh darn it, and I really wanted to meet Phoebe's rebound guy! I guess I'll have to wait till next time, if there is one!'

'Don't be so harsh on her. I'd probably end up doing the same thing if I was in her situation.'

While all this had been going on Prue had managed to remove her coat, put her bag on the hall table and slouch into the sofa. She had had an incredibly hard day at Bucklands. There had been so much cataloguing to do and then she had gotten shouted at by her boss. And the worst part was he was really cute so she couldn't even hate him. 

'Yeah well, I've had enough of guys for one day. Are you cooking tonight?' replied Prue.

'Uh uh, chicken and rice, not very complicated but I'm tired and complicated probably wouldn't turn out very well.'

At that moment Leo orbed in behind Piper. She turned around, not realizing he was there and let out a little yelp of surprise.

'Ok Leo sweetie, would you please make a little more noise when you do that. Something along the lines of Honey, I'm home would be nice.'

'Hey Leo, wine?' Prue said laughingly as she got up from the chair.

'I haven't got time. I came down to tell you guys there's a new demon in town. The word from the elders is that he's seriously evil and after the charmed ones!'

'What a shock, a seriously evil demon after us, I would never have expected that to happen!' retorted Prue.

'Why does this new demon want us?' asked Piper.

'The elders weren't to clear about that. They think its some kind of ritual.'

'Quick question,' said Prue. 'How do the elders actually get to be elders? I mean everytime we go to them for help they give us these vague cryptic answers. I mean do they have to train to do that cos I swear there is no way they were born that ambiguous.'

Both Piper and Leo stared at Prue with looks on their faces showing how confused they were.

'Hard day at work,' Prue said apologetically.

'They do know the name of this demon… Balcalae.'

'Okay, lets go check the Book of Shadows,' said Piper.

                                                                * * *

'Balcalae,' read Prue 'hypnotises his victims and then uses an athame to kill them. Apparently nobody can resist this guys hypnotic powers.'

'So we find him and then attack him from behind or we come up with some way of not getting sucked in with his little mind games,' said Piper.

Prue let out a small gasp of alarm. 'You guys had better have a look at this,' she said quietly.

Leo and Piper walked over to the book of shadows and as Prue sidestepped out of the way they started to read.

                                                                * * *

'I cannot believe it, okay you know what I just said? Well screw that, Cole would so be friends with a demon like Balcalae!' said Piper.

'Yeah. We're gonna have to tell Phoebe about this new demon, if he's after us then she's going to have to keep an eye out, be prepared but question is do we tell her about this demons relationship with Cole. It might just distract her and then she could end up dead because she wasn't able to concentrate,' replied Prue.

Piper shrugged her shoulders and closed the book. All three walked out of the attic wondering what to do.


	2. Demon 911

'How perfect was that meal?'

'It was perfect and I'm not just talking about the food either.'

Phoebe could feel the blush rising up her neck. Soon it would get to her cheeks and she'd look like a complete tomato. She wouldn't have minded if it was Cole sitting opposite her but this was different. It was Matt sitting there, across the table smiling at her. Why did everything have to be so hard? Why couldn't she get over him? He had killed a witch for crying out loud, that should be enough for her to start hating him but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop herself from making excuses for him. 

'Phoebe…Phoebe?'

Phoebe suddenly came out of her little trance to see Matt looking at her questionally. 

'Sorry, I was just…' She trailed off not knowing quite what to say. 'What is it?' she asked hoping he didn't pursue her whole dreamworld thing any further.

'I was just asking if you wanted to go someplace else, you know, get a coffee or something. We could go back to mine.'

Phoebe didn't want to do that. It wasn't that Matt wasn't perfectly nice. He was a total gentleman; any woman would love to be with him. But he wasn't Cole. And plus she wasn't sure what he meant by coffee. If it was a totally innocent comment and he just wanted some coffee then fine. If, however he meant what most people meant when they said 'you wanna come back to mine for coffee, wink wink nudge nudge' then it was a definite no. She was not prepared to take that next step so soon. I mean come on, this was only a first date. She wasn't sure if she wanted a second date let alone sex.

'Look, Matt I have an early start tomorrow so do you mind if I don't. I had a wonderful time though.'

Well it wasn't completely untrue. The food had been great and Matt had been fun to talk to. She hated Cole. Before she met and fell in love with him she would have been jumping this guys bones for sure! In a completely non-slutty way.

'Ok, maybe some other time then?'

'Yeah sure, I'd like that.'

'I'll give you a ride home then,' said Matt.

What was she doing? This guy was perfect. He didn't care that she had been really bad company all evening. He was so sweet. Why did Cole have to go and wreck everything for her?  

Just then her mobile rang.

'Excuse me for just one second,' Phoebe said as she got up from the table and walked out into the corridor of the restaurant.

'Hello'

'Hi Pheebs, we got a little bit of a demon emergency here, is it possible for you to come home?'

'Yeah Piper, I'll be there in like 20 minutes.'

'See you then. Oh yeah and Pheebs…be careful.'

'Bye.'

Phoebe put the phone back in her purse and walked back to the table.

'A new demon emergency, why does this feel like dejavu? She muttered under her breath.


	3. Man or Monster

'She'll be here in 20 minutes.'

'Good, if this demon is anything as bad as he sounds then we should stick together.'

'I totally agree. Where did Leo go?'

'He went to see if the elders knew anything more about Balcalae.'

Piper walked into the kitchen to start on the food. 

'Whoa,' said Prue as she walked into the room. 'What's with all the mess?'

'I was creating,' said Piper defensively.

'Creating what, a nice little home for farmyard animals?!'

There were saucepans on all the surfaces and unidentifiable things sliding down the walls. The word 'mess' was not one that would have fitted as a description for the kitchen. 'Disaster area' was probably better.

Just at that moment Leo orbed in.

'We need Cole!'

                                                                * * *

Just as Leo was orbing into the house a car pulled up outside. It was Matt's. Phoebe was debating over whether or not to kiss him goodnight. It would probably be seen as rude not to but…there was always Cole in the back of her mind.

'Phoebe, thanks for coming out with me. I had a great time.'

'Yeah me to.' 

'Goodnight Phoebe.'

Matt leant in to kiss her. Well, a peck on the cheek can't be too bad thought Phoebe. She turned her face to the side but Matt grabbed her forcing her to look at him. A light blue beam of light came out of his eyes into hers. She struggled against it but gradually felt her body becoming weaker. Matt let go of her and sat back in his seat.

'Now we can get down to business.' His voice had changed. Where before it had been kind and warm now it was cruel and sharp.

As he said this the door to the house opened and Prue, Piper and Leo walked out.

They spotted the car and made their way over to it. 

Matt stepped out of the car but it wasn't him they saw. It was a huge ugly looking demon. He actually looked a lot like Belthazor.

He fired an energy ball at them. The three of them scattered, Phoebe was still sitting in the car.

As Leo, Piper and Prue recovered Matt walked round to the passenger side. He opened the door and told Phoebe to get out. He leaned in to her so nobody else could hear what was said. By that time Prue had picked herself up. She readied herself to throw something at him but he swung round and punched her on the side of her head. She was pushed atleast six feet away from him by the force of it.

'Don't mess with me witch. You cannot hope to stop me. You are too weak to defeat me, Balcalae!'

'So that's who you are. And now what? You kill her and us cos that seems like a pretty boring plan,' said Prue stalling to give herself enough time to get off the floor.

'No, I have bigger plans for your little sister, you I'm gonna kill but Phoebe here has a purpose.'

'And what's that?'

'Just a little bit of revenge.'

At that Balcalae shimmered out. Prue looked around for Phoebe but she couldn't see her anywhere. She must have run off during the confusion. But where to nobody could tell.


	4. Cole

'Where do you think they went?' Piper asked as she applied an ice pack to the side of Prue's head. 

'Ouch, and I don't know. He talked about getting revenge on someone but who that is and how he's gonna use Phoebe is completely beyond me.'

Prue took the ice off Piper. She needed to think but this thumping headache was completely disturbing. He was so strong and they were out on the front lawn so it wasn't like she could have even used her powers. She felt so helpless. She trusted Phoebe, and yeah it hadn't always been like that but Phoebe had proved herself on numerous occasions. But she was hypnotised and didn't have any control over what she did. It was all so frustrating. 

'Who would Balcalae want to get revenge against?'

Piper brought Prue out of her own thoughts. 

'Good point. If we find out who that is then we can, hopefully find out where they are and go find them before Balcalae does.'

'But I still don't get why Balcalae didn't just kill Phoebe,' said Leo. 'I mean, why take her with him?'

'Maybe she's some kind of bait.'

'Yeah,' said Piper 'but what demon or person would be tempted to help a charmed one?'

All three of them sat down at the kitchen table deep in thought. Suddenly all three came to the same conclusion.

'Cole!'


	5. Love of his Life

I have had some complaints that the last chapter was too short. I have chosen to take that as a compliment, meaning that you want to read more. I wrote this story a while ago but never even thought of putting it on a website. I discovered FanFiction.net one day and so I'm now having to split the story up into chapters in a way that makes sense. Sorry if some of them are short, sorry if some of them are super long. Thanks for the reviews anyways, really appreciate the feedback.

The cemetery was dark but still quite warm. It had been a hot day in San Francisco. There was a light breeze blowing through the leaves on the trees making them rustle. Phoebe was walking calmly. She was a woman on a mission. Just as she reached one of the many crypts in the graveyard Balcalae shimmered in front of her. She stopped.

'So, this is where the great Belthazor lives? Not bad, could do with…windows but you can't account for taste.'

At that Balcalae stepped out of Phoebe's way. She walked forward to the door of the crypt and pushed on it. It didn't give so she aimed a steady kick at it. The door splintered slightly as it flew back on its hinges.

Cole looked up. Shock spread over his face as he recognised Phoebe. 

'What the…' but his words were cut off suddenly as Phoebe walked over to him and punched him in the stomach. He doubled over under the pain. Being hypnotised by Balcalae had withdrawn her conscience from the equation. She no longer had any control over her actions or her feelings. This had made her stronger.

She pushed Cole into a sitting position on the floor and held him in a choke hold so he could see the door. At this Balcalae sauntered in. Cole was shocked to see him and Balcalae gloried in it. He wanted Cole to be shocked before he was killed by the one thing in this life that he loved. His death would be poignant because of the plain fact that it was Phoebe doing the deed. Then Balcalae would hypnotise her again (it would have worn off once her mission had been fulfilled) and he would kill her. It was the perfect plan.

'Why are you doing this now?' Cole managed to choke out.

'Well you see Cole, you wrecked my life. I see it as only fair that you let me kill you.'

'How would that be fair? What did I do to you?'

'You left me man, we were traveling the world, having fun and then you just bail on me. I didn't know where you went. All I knew was that we were in the middle of a riot, pretty cool one to and then when the dust settled, you were nowhere. I thought you had been taken or killed or something.'

'What, you cared? I didn't think you were capable of that?' Cole was struggling under the pressure Phoebe was putting on his neck.

Ignoring him Balcalae went on. 'And then I find out that you're embracing you're human half, what's up with that? You were Belthazor, greatest demon of your time! But then I found you, here in San Francisco. And I came up with the coolest plan. Why not use the love of your life against you? Its perfect, I know, you don't have to say anything.'


	6. Kickin Ass

This one is the shortest chapter in the whole history of chapters so whereas before I was putting up one at a time I have decided to put up the last two together. Please review the whole thing, thanks for the reviews you've already done. 

'Its this one, I'm sure of it,' cried Piper pointing at the crypt straight ahead of them. They ran round to the other side where the door was supposed to be. It was on the floor, almost in pieces. 

'I think its fair to say that I'm right,' said Piper. They looked inside and saw Phoebe with an athame in her right hand about to kill Cole. Balcalae was standing off to one side laughing. 

Prue ran forward and using telekinesis flung Cole out of the reach of Phoebe. Phoebe immediately set off towards him. As she raised the athame Cole threw a fireball at Balcalae. He screamed as his body went up in flames and he vanished into thin air.  Phoebe fainted into Cole's arms.


	7. When Goodbye isn't the End

This is the last chapter, so please give me really long reviews cos anything helps. Hope you enjoyed reading, and hopefully if you liked that one you won't have to wait too long for another one, I'm currently writing a fiction for a different TV show and attempting to pass exams so could take a little while, just look out for it. Thank you for reading and reviewing…Have a nice day!

'I'm still confused as to why we saved Cole. I mean, shouldn't we hate him or something?' 

'Oh come on Prue, stop being so negative,' said Piper. 'Phoebe is fine with what happened so we should be to.'

'Yeah well, Phoebe was fine with dating Cole when she first found out he was a demon. I'm not really going by her standards. And that's another question that begs to be asked. Why is Phoebe so fine with all this? How is she not feeling some normal emotion that usually takes place when this kind of thing happens, like anger or pain?!'

'I have no idea and we will probably never know unless Phoebe decides to tell us, so don't push it.'

'Why would you think I would push it Piper, I am the therapist type person in this family!'

'Yes, and I'm a ventriloquist with a sock puppet called Victor.'

                                                                * * *

Phoebe put the brush down and looked at her watch. She had been brushing her hair for 35 minutes now. Distracted did not even come into it. What was she going to do? Seeing Cole had awakened so many emotions in her and it was not like she could even tell anyone what was going on. Piper and Prue would never get it. Yeah they had had relationship issues but never this bad. 

'I just have to forget about him. Its no big deal, I'll just forget Cole ever existed,' she said as she put the brush down. 

'There will be no problem from now on cos there will be no Cole from now on. As far as I am concerned there never was a…' Phoebe trailed off as she turned around to face the very guy that didn't exist.

'You know, I never really pictured you as a denial type of girl,' said Cole. He looked like a cross between amused and hurt.

Phoebe blinked quickly to stop the tears from coming. But she was too late.

She couldn't think of anything to say. She knew she should turn around and walk out the door but she couldn't get her legs to move. 

Cole started walking over to her.

'Phoebe, you know I never meant to hurt you, you are the only thing with any worth in my life…'

She put her hand to his mouth to stop him from talking. Phoebe reached up to kiss Cole gently on the lips. 

That one kiss was full of so much passion and emotion. It was intense and to her those few seconds felt like years.

And then she pulled away, turned and walked out of the room closing the door behind her. 

So that was goodbye. Phoebe leant against the wall knowing that if she didn't she would fall down. 

She stood there for a couple of minutes before opening the door. Biggest shock: Cole was still there. 

'You're not getting rid of me that easily. I know what I did was wrong. It was evil but I can't turn back time and make everything right-'

'Shut up Cole.' 

He stood there looking vaguely shocked. 

'Cole, I can't forget what you did. You killed a witch. That is not okay in any situation. But I can forgive you. It'll take time and I can't promise anything but I can try.'

At this Cole looked relieved. He knew it would take time for her; it would take even longer for him to forgive himself.

'And things can't go back to the way they were. I can't be your girlfriend until I'm sure I can be around you.'

'I can deal with that.'

'Okay.'

A look of familiarity passed between them as Phoebe turned around for the second time and walked out of the room.

Again she stood, back against the wall but this time, no tears. No smile but no tears. 

'Which for right now,' Phoebe sighed 'Is pretty fine.'


End file.
